Old English hyngran "be hungry, feel hunger, hunger for," from the source of hunger (n.). Compare Old Saxon gihungrjan, Old High German hungaran, German hungern, Gothic huggrjan. In late Old English also "desire with longing." In Old English and Middle English also with an impersonal form (it hungers me). By normal development it would be Modern English *hinger, but the form was influenced in Middle English by the noun. Related: Hungered; hungering.